Graham - Smitten: More Unpretentious Recipes

Published in 2014 by Struik Lifestyle (an imprint of Random House Struik (Pty) Ltd)

Company Reg. No. 1966/003153/07 Wembley Square, 1st Floor, Solan Road, Gardens 8001

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Copyright in published edition: Random House Struik (Pty) Ltd 2014

Copyright in text: Sarah Graham 2014

Copyright in photographs: Random House Struik (Pty) Ltd 2014

Reproduction by Hirt & Carter Cape (Pty) Ltd

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publishers and copyright holders.

Publisher: Linda de Villiers

Managing editor: Cecilia Barfield

Editor and indexer: Bronwen Leak

Designer: Beverley Dodd

Photographer: Warren Heath

Photographers assistant: Joshua Niss

Stylist: Lisa Clark

Stylists assistant: Sara Lohmaier

Proofreader: Anja Grobler

ISBN 978-1-43230-186-6 (Print)

ISBN 9781432303754 (ePub)

ISBN 9781432303761 (PDF)

When Im not cooking, some of my very favourite moments are spent with Rob and Sophie, who make up our little family of three. Without them and the rest of my wonderful family, and their endless encouragement, mealtimes would be meaningless and cooking would be aimless and empty.

To Mum, for teaching me that patience is indeed a virtue. Thats why her cakes (and pretty much everything that she touches in the kitchen) always come out perfectly. Shes meticulous, thorough, focused in her approach in the kitchen and so many other things that I am not. And she always, always cooks with love.

To my recipe testers, scattered all around the world, who are also some of my very best friends. I triple test all of my recipes in my own kitchen and then farm them out to my friends, regular (and amazing) people, just like you and I, who painstakingly retest, make notes and return their homework. The deal is that they have to be ruthlessly honest. This time around, the merry band included: Debbie Buchner, Kimbo Brown-Schirato, my darling mum Wendy Conolly, Tracy Dane, Bronwyn Diering, Cath Goldsworthy, Ashleigh Graham, Robyn Graham, Teneale Holley, Jenna Hutchings, Megan Massingham, Justine Passaportis, Louise and Richardt Schoonwinkel, Ruth Tanser, Barbs Taylor, Yvonne Turner, Katherine Tyler, Claire Van Tonder and Elsie Velacott.

When I started my blog back in May 2010, absolutely nothing and no one could have convinced me that I would end up here, with not one but two cookbooks. I suppose that, all being well, that is the natural order of things. But when you are up to your eyeballs in recipe writing, testing, eating (!) and editing (until you cant bring yourself to look at the same font anymore), you hardly have time to look up and look ahead somehow. But boy am I glad that I did.

And then there was the mini-dilemma of thinking that I had poured my whole heart and soul into bitten. How was I going to find the inspiration for more? I was, albeit for a brief moment, terrified that perhaps there was nothing left, that I had scraped the proverbial barrel of my gastronomical imagination.

Fortuitously for all of us, the world is quite literally our oyster, spilling over with an unimaginable abundance of new ideas, ingredients, combinations, seasons and flavours. It didnt take long before I was firmly settled into the now-familiar and very agreeable stage of writing down ideas at midnight, and planning and thinking and writing and cooking.

And the result? A book that is a smidgen more grown-up and, perhaps, sophisticated than its predecessor, but still for the most part endearingly uncomplicated and unintimidating. Its a kitchen helper packed full of all the delicious, simple, honest and sincere recipes that I love to cook for family and friends; the food that accompanies us as we meander through our colourful lives.

As with bitten, this book is for feeding people you love, within the constraints of your busy lives, and with the heart-felt belief that every meal has the potential for greatness. And yet smitten also unapologetically goes one or two steps further, into simple artisanal recipes like homemade ricotta and avocado mayonnaise, old-fashioned but utterly up-to-date and delicious lime curd, and exquisite bacon marmalade, which will all ask you to spend just a little more time coercing them to greatness. And I love that, because those quiet moments at the stove are moments well spent.

And so, now Im handing this over to you, with the hope that it will be a companion of convenience, fat with possibilities for creating beautiful food for sharing around full and happy tables.

With the firm belief that there is no point in re-inventing the wheel, these are adapted from bitten and remain firm favourites in my little arsenal of kitchen what-to-dos.

Clean up as you go along; this means you wont get to the end of cooking with your kitchen looking like a bomb went off. I usually keep the bin in the middle of the kitchen floor when Im cooking, so I can just discard things quickly and easily as I go along.

If we are having people round, I always lay the table before I start cooking, so that on the odd occasion when Im still enshrouded in steamy kitchen chaos and hear their knock at the door, it looks like Im ready for them.

Wherever possible, explore where the food you are buying comes from and opt for well-loved ingredients. If that means eating less meat and spending more money on fewer but better-quality meat dishes, then go for it. Try to buy free range or organic where you can. And take the time to read more about meat-free Monday and check out the tips for how to be selective omnivores on my blog.

All cottage cheese, cream cheese and yoghurt are fat free or low fat unless otherwise stated. I also try to use low GL ingredients. Glycaemic load (GL) is similar to glycaemic index (GI) but, in laymans terms, takes the analysis one step further and so is that much more comprehensive. I have been following a low-GL diet for four years now after stomach complications resulted in a dramatic emergency operation in 2009, and cannot expound the benefits strongly enough.

I have sifted through the recipes included in here and given you a meals for a month guide, as well as a handy wine guide if ever youre in the mood for simple wine pairings.

Always make sure you read the recipe the whole way through before you start cooking. I am a classic culprit for always wanting to get right to the good stuff and have learned this the hard way.

Being efficient in the kitchen is a whole world easier when you have what you need at your fingertips. That said, you can improvise in a lot of areas, so dont be put off if you dont have some of these things or cant afford them at this stage.